


full offense but that is the stupidest thing

by cranberries_dot_com



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No Exy (All For The Game), F/F, F/M, I will be adding tags as I go, M/M, Oblivious Neil Josten, Pining Andrew Minyard, Protective Andrew Minyard, Protective Neil Josten, Spiderman AU, Superpowers, everyone is the same age, except neil hes one year younger bc he smart and skipped a grade, this follows neither canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:21:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25005325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cranberries_dot_com/pseuds/cranberries_dot_com
Summary: There was something off in the way Andrew was looking at him.Ignoring Riko's forearm pressing against his windpipe and the locker hinges digging into the still-healing bruises on his spine, Neil croaked, "What?""Idiot," Andrew said, already turning to leave. "Roof, when you're finished here."Neil smiled as Riko crashed his body against the creaky lockers."You will look at me when I'm talking to you."Neil rolled his eyes. "You didn't even say anything, fuckwad."---------In which Neil is involved in his usual dumbassery and martyrdom, and also much more. Because he's Spiderman, and he really can't help it.Andrew absolutely does not have a crush on the new kid, the one that is far too interesting and pretty for his own good.
Relationships: Allison Reynolds/Renee Walker (All For The Game), Katelyn/Aaron Minyard, Matt Boyd/Danielle "Dan" Wilds, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Neil Josten & Jean Moreau, Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Comments: 82
Kudos: 330





	1. full offense but that is the stupidest thing

There was a new kid in Andrew's English class, and Kevin already had his metaphorical, track-obsessed tongue down his throat. 

"I'm serious," Kevin said, leaning into the kid's space. The kid leaned away, pulling a threadbare and too-big hoodie tighter around his shoulders. "What were your events?" 

Andrew slammed his book down on the desk Kevin was sitting at. Kevin jumped, but the new kid's whole body flinched, curling into itself for a moment so short Andrew would have missed it if he hadn't been watching so closely. When he straightened up, he met Andrew's impassive gaze with a glare hotter than the red of his mess of hair. 

_Interesting_

It was harder than Andrew anticipated to look away from the bright blue eyes, the face full of freckles. Andrew felt a muscle in his jaw twitch. 

"Found someone new to irritate with your stupid obsession," he said, a question without the inflection of one. 

Kevin ignored the jab, buzzing with excitement. "He clocks a sub-six minute mile, Andrew. He needs to join the team." 

"Hey now," freckles said, "I said that was an estimate. Nobody's ever timed me." 

Andrew pretended not to notice they way his nose crinkled and the strange way he rounded out his syllables, a clear remnant of a sticky accent that Andrew couldn't decipher. Irritation at his flickering concentration bloomed in his chest and trickled down to the palms of his hands. 

"Name?" Andrew asked, attempting his usual apathetic tone.

"You can call me Neil," he responded. "I just transferred in."

"Congratulations," Andrew said. "I don't care."

Neil's left eyebrow quirked up. "Yeah, sure," he said. "That's why you asked what my name was."

The muscle in Andrew's jaw twitched. Again. 

*~*~

By the time Andrew made it to the cafeteria, Kevin had already tucked Neil between himself and Matt, talking all their ears off about the importance of training and impressing colleges their junior year. 

Kevin was flailing his arms around as he spoke, paying his irritatingly healthy lunch no attention. "I mean, what colleges are you looking at? A lot of scouts are coming for our spring season, and that starts in a couple of weeks. I'll start training you early for it so you're prepared." 

Neil looked uncomfortable boxed in by the two, much taller boys, and was rolling an apple between his hands distractedly. 

Andrew blinked slowly, surprised and mildly impressed. The apple had been in Kevin's lunchbox when Andrew had sat down, and he didn’t even see Neil grab it. 

"I, uh, haven't really thought about college." Neil said. "I'm technically supposed to be a sophomore, actually." 

Matt looked up at that. "Oh, seriously?" he asked. "How old are you?"

"Fifteen," Neil said, taking a bite out of his stolen apple. "Sixteen in March." 

Andrew saw the moment Matt decided to adopt Neil, the look of gentle awe he passed over the tiny redhead and the tug he made on Dan's shirt.

"He's so small," he whispered to her. 

Dan snorted. "We're not that much older."

"But look at him!" 

She shook her head at him and propped her elbows on the table and her head on her hands.

"Neil," Dan started. "Are you taking all junior classes or...?" She trailed off, motioning for him to finish the thought. 

Neil shrugged, red crawling up his throat and making its home on his cheeks. "Kind of?" 

Andrew threw a barbecue potato chip at him. Irritatingly, Neil caught it and promptly ate it. 

"Kind of," he repeated, and threw another. Neil caught that one effortlessly, too. 

He shrugged again. "I'm in the advanced senior's calc class," Neil muttered. 

"Shit," Matt said. "Damn." 

"How'd you do that?" Kevin asked, finally turning to his lunch. 

"They gave me a bunch of placement exams and tests when I enrolled," Neil said. "I guess they decided I already knew too much to put me in the sophomore classes." 

Dan drummed her nails on the table top. "What fancy private school did you transfer in from?" 

"I didn't," Neil said. "Go to high school before today, I mean. I just took online classes." 

There was some further, hidden truth buried beneath that statement, Andrew decided. Neil had shifted his weight around uncomfortably and picked at his nails, and something about it felt like a years-old bitterness spilling out against his will. 

When Neil did look up, Andrew's eyes were already there to meet him, to pin him and his secrets in place. An ounce of curiosity settled deep in his bones, and Andrew cursed himself for it. 

Matt paused, looking between the two of them nervously. 

"Where's everybody else, anyways?" he asked, voice a touch tense. 

Frowning, Neil looked away. "Who's everybody else?" 

Andrew sighed, already spotting the group making their way to the table over Neil's shoulders. 

"Them," he said, pointing with his plastic spork. 

_"Oh my god!"_ Nicky shouted. "You caught the new kid!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I guarantee this will be a terrible, wild ride. Enjoy! :)


	2. no seriously what are you doing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I mean," Neil stammered out. "I've been kissed." 
> 
> "And?" Nicky asked. "Wasn't it great?" 
> 
> Neil shrugged. "Not really. It wasn't really worth it." 
> 
> Wasn't worth the bruised face and fractured ribs. Just because he healed fast didn't mean he didn't feel pain. 
> 
> Andrew paused at that, something shuttering behind his eyes. 
> 
> "Wasn't worth it."

_"Oh my god!"_ Neil hears behind him, and his shoulders tense at the shrillness of the scream. "You caught the new kid!" 

Everything had already felt like too much for Neil and his dialed up senses, with the way he was stuffed between the two trees of teenage boys and the constant, overlapping chatter bouncing off the walls of the over-filled cafeteria. He had zero desire to add more people—especially _shrieky_ people—to the great big melting pot of sensory overload.

His half empty stomach didn't improve the situation, though the apple that he'd slipped from Kevin's lunchbox helped. 

Somewhat. 

Neil comforted himself with the fact that he'd have a student card to get a free breakfast and lunch with within the next week as "everyone else" sat themselves down. Until then, he'd just have to survive on scraps and stolen morsels.

There were two girls—one blond sporting a shirt with ASL finger signs for _'fuck you'_ and one with bleached white hair with pastel tips and a silver cross hanging from her slender neck—holding hands, and three boys. The loud one dropped himself heavily on Andrew's left, and a carbon copy of Andrew sat himself on his right. 

Neil squinted at the third one taking his place at Kevin's other side, and-

"Jean?" he sputtered, only half conscious of his own mouth moving, and Jean froze, face lighting up in recognition. 

_Fuck. Fuck, no. He's going to say the wrong name now fuck fuck fuckufck._

"How do you know Neil?" Kevin questioned, and Neil wanted to kiss him despite his general dislike for the act. 

Neil just hoped Jean remembered enough to just go with it. 

"Yeah, _Neil,_ " Andrew said. "How do you know Jean? He's an exchange student, after all."

Neil dragged his most irritated glare over him, and parceled out a piece of the truth. 

"I lived in France for a few years. Jean and I," Neil tilted his head in the direction of the boy, "Lived in the same town. We were close enough in age to get along. I had zero idea he went here." 

It was a close enough approximation of what had really happened, when a 12-year-old Jean Moreau had been saved by a dirty and beaten boy with brown hair and eyes. His name had been Stefan, back then. Jean had been faced with a bully, and "Stefan" had broken two of his fingers and his nose without question. 

It had been the start of one of the only friendships Neil had to call his own, but his mother had taken him and run the moment she found out. It hadn’t been a pretty night. 

Stefan disappeared with a black eye and no goodbye.

Jean got up from where he'd been sitting and inserted himself between Kevin and Neil, giving the former a big enough shove to make enough space for himself. 

"What in the fuck man," Kevin muttered to himself, quiet enough that Neil was likely the only one at the table that had heard it. "I found the little bastard first."

Then, to everybody else’s very visible shock, Jean grabbed a handful of Neil's hair, scraping his nails against his scalp, and Neil leaned into the familiar grounding technique. Jean knew that Neil needed it, that point of focus when everything else was an overwhelming mess. 

"I thought you died," Jean said in French. "Or that I imagined everything about you." 

"I almost did, many times," Neil responded in the same language. "And you didn't." 

Jean glared down at him. 

"Why are you so tall?" Neil questioned, just irritating enough to distract from the earlier admission. 

"Not to interrupt," the boy to Andrew's left interrupted, speaking English, and Jean dropped his hand. He had a styled mop of brown hair, brown eyes, tanned skin, and a loud mouth. "Because this is a very cute and wonderful display of affection. Trust me, it's adorable. But, I had zero idea Jean was gay. I feel like that was something I really should have known." 

"Nicky," Jean said. "The reason you did not know is because you have a terrible gaydar. And I am not gay." 

Nicky looked disappointed. "Oh? Okay. Neil, what about you? Please tell me you swing my way." 

"Jesus," Carbon-copy said. "You couldn't wait ten seconds?"

"Careful, Nicky," Andrew warned at the same time, voice low and dangerous. 

Neil shifted in his seat, uncomfortable. "I don't, really," he said. "Swing. I don't swing."

The blond girl lifted her upper body over the table to get a closer at him, and Neil couldn't help but blink owlishly at her. 

"Um" He said, eloquently. 

"You don't swing," she said, sounding suspicious and incredulous. 

Andrew shrew her a sharp look. "That's what he said." 

She ignored him, continuing with a barrage of questions.

"You don't like girls?" 

"No."

"Boys?"

"Also no." 

"Nobody. You're not attracted to anybody. At all."

"Yeah. Nobody."

"But you're so cute."

"I-" Neil blinked. "What?"

"Allison," the girl with the dyed hair said, voice soft. "Leave him be." She gave the hem of Allison's shirt a tug, pulling her back into her seat.

Neil shot her a grateful look at that, and something just beneath his skin buzzed when she met his gaze. It was a gentle hum, barely there but still noticeable. 

_Dangerous,_ Neil thought. _But not presently a danger._

"I'm sorry we didn't introduce ourselves earlier," She said. "I'm Renee. This is Allison, and," Renee motioned to the two boys sitting on either side of Andrew. "Nicky is the excitable one and Aaron is Andrew's twin." 

Nicky waved his hands around, drawing attention. 

"Okay, cool. Awesome," he said. "Now that introductions are out of the way-" Nicky pointed a finger at Neil "-you've really never liked anyone? Wanted to give someone a wet smooch?" 

Aaron wrinkled his nose. "You could not have found a worse way to say that."

"I mean," Neil stammered out. "I've been kissed." 

"And?" Nicky asked. "Wasn't it great?" 

Neil shrugged. "Not really. It wasn't really worth it." 

Wasn't worth the bruised face and fractured ribs. Just because he healed fast didn't mean he didn't feel the pain. 

Andrew paused at that, something shuttering behind his eyes. 

"Wasn't worth it."

Matt gave Neil's shoulder a gentle shove. "Don't worry about it, buddy," he said with a kind smile. "If it's not your thing it's no biggie." 

"Yeah!" Dan chimed in. "It's really whatever. Don't mind the gossips." 

"I want to introduce him to the cheerleaders," Allison said anyways. 

"No," Andrew said immediately, his almost-empty glare meeting Neil's eyes. 

Allison bristled. "You don't get t-" 

"No," Andrew interrupted. "I will not repeat myself again." 

He was still staring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is very self indulgent and Jean and Neil are friends. fight me. also! his powers//abilities are slowly being introduced and also yes this is neil's pov lol it'll switch a little bit throughout depending on the situation
> 
> also !! as to updating schedule ive been thinking at lease once a week but maybe more (idk 100% yet yk) 
> 
> uuh feel free to drop any questions if you have any ?? idk what im doing 
> 
> ALSO !! thank you sm for the support on the first chapter !! it really means a lot <33


	3. this is getting even worse and i hate it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I-what? No," Kevin said. "No, but if you don't stretch before strenuous exercise you're going to hurt yourself." 
> 
> Neil shrugged. "I've been fine so far." 
> 
> "But now y-" 
> 
> "Look, Kevin," Neil said, wiggling his fingers in Kevin's face, voice mocking. "My bones are still here."

Kevin dragged Neil down to the track immediately after bell, the rest of the group trailing after to see what all Kevin's fussing was about. Well, mostly. 

Andrew had his own, personal reasons for withstanding an unusually chilly South Carolina wind at the top of the stands. Every single one of them had to do with the question mark that was Neil A. Josten, local genius and absolute smartass. 

Nothing about him seemed to add up, from his connections to Jean Moreau and the dodgy way he managed to barely answer questions directed at his social, personal, or family life to the missing gaps in his student file that Andrew totally didn't break into the office to look up. 

But now, now Andrew was watching Kevin bicker with Neil "sub-six minute mile" Josten about warming up before running with more amusement than he'd really like. 

"You have to stretch!" 

"Or what," Neil deadpanned. "My bones are gonna fall out?"

Dan snorted from where she sat a few stands down from Andrew, her shoulder pressed against Matt's. 

"I-what? No," Kevin said. "No, but if you don't stretch before strenuous exercise you're going to hurt yourself." 

Neil shrugged. "I've been fine so far." 

"But now y-" 

"Look, Kevin," Neil said, wiggling his fingers in Kevin's face, voice mocking. "My bones are still here." 

Kevin looked like he was moments away from punting the tiny redhead across the field. Andrew almost agreed with the sentiment. 

"What in the hell does that even mean," Aaron snapped. 

"Let him run," Jean said, his accent thick and smug as ever, and Andrew wanted to wring every little detail about how he knew Neil from his ridiculously long body. "Trust me. He will be okay." 

Neil nodded in agreement, not breaking eye contact with Kevin. 

"Fine," Kevin snapped. "But if you pull something then I get to say that I told you so." 

Shrugging, Neil said, "Whatever. Where do I start?" 

Allison raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow. "In that?" 

"What do you mean?" Neil asked, a concerned frown taking over his face. 

"Are you serious?" Aaron questioned. 

"Neil, honey," Nicky said at the same time. 

Andrew gave his ratty, worn out sneakers a pointed look, dragging his judgmental gaze over the hideously baggy sweats and too-thin hoodie Neil was wearing. When his eyes finally found their way back to Neil's face, Andrew found he was looking straight at him with a ridiculous blush crawling from ear to ear. 

Neil scuffed the toe of one of his sneakers across a line painted on the track, the sole threatening to make its departure. "These are the only shoes I have," he said, embarrassed and defiant all at once. His blue eyes seared marks into Andrew's skin. "I've run much farther than one measly mile in them." 

"Doesn't change the fact that you look homeless," Andrew said, more bite than he'd intended bleeding into the words. 

_"Andrew,"_ Nicky admonished, voice scandalized. 

"Fuck you," Neil responded with heat, and Matt made a vague noise of concern in the back of his throat that they both ignored. He looked back at Kevin. "Just tell me where to start and when to stop." 

Kevin pointed at the starting line. "Four laps." 

Neil made his way over, and waited with his hands shoved into the pockets of his hoodie. 

"Just tell me when to go." 

Kevin gave a heavy sigh, a countdown, and Neil was off like a fucking bullet. 

"Holy shit," Nicky said, hands in his hair, but Kevin stared after Neil's running figure with a vague look of disapproval. 

"He'll burn out if he doesn't pace himself." 

Jean smiled, a fond look on his usually irritated face. "He knows what he's doing." 

"How?" Dan asked. "He said that he's never been on a track team before, or ran competitively. Or, like, properly trained anywhere." 

"He knows what he is doing," Jean repeated. 

Matt laughed. "Clearly." 

Andrew felt more than saw Renee move to sit next to him, eyes glued to the flash of red flying across the track. 

"He is very fast," she said.

"Clearly," Andrew mocked, and paused. "He's something else too." 

Renee hummed. "I agree. There is definitely something more to him, not that he isn't already a handful at the surface." 

Andrew didn't say anything, but letting the statement stand uncontested was a confirmation in itself. 

"Is he mine or yours?" She asked after a moment, Neil running past them. "I'd be more than happy to take him, but I think I made him nervous earlier." 

"He's mine," Andrew responded too quickly. He wanted to rip out his own tongue for it. "Shut up." 

-

Neil finished his mile after 4 minutes, 7 seconds, and 16 hundredths of a second, face flushed and smiling from the exercise. 

Andrew squinted. 

He frowned. 

Because Neil, the same Neil that just smashed their high school's record mile time without any prep, any training _ever_ , wasn't breathing very hard at all. 

How fucking curious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ngl I didn't expect this to a slow burn but i think it's gonna be very soon // at this point  
> -  
> -  
> Edit: I removed Seth bc tbh I don’t have a plan for his character and I never introduced him in the last chapter and I kinda put him in by accident OOPS he was only mentioned once tho so like it’s fine ? hopefully SORRY


	4. time for some ~gay panic babie~

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Excuse me," someone said, and Andrew turned his glare on the source of the noise. It was Marissa, Aaron's girlfriend's cheerleader friend, standing there all prim and proper with her hair up and nails done. "That's my seat," she said, voice shaky with fake bravery. 
> 
> "Martha," Andrew started, Neil snorting quietly beside him. "I don't care." 

The next morning, Andrew threw himself into the empty seat next to Neil's. He was wearing a shirt that probably used to be black but had turned grey from too many washes and the same ugly sweatpants from the day before. His right sneaker sported a new strip of duct tape, holding the body and sole of the shoe together. 

And so Andrew sat there, waiting for some sort of reaction from Genius Josten. A glare, some sort of questioning, _anything_ given the fact that Andrew definitely did not belong in this stupid upper level math class. Instead, all he got from Neil was a blink of recognition and a little nod before turning back to scribbling nonsense in his dingy notebook. Andrew wanted to introduce his knuckles to the idiot's freckled nose. 

"Excuse me," someone said, and Andrew turned his glare on the source of the noise. It was Marissa, Aaron's girlfriend's cheerleader friend, standing there all prim and proper with her hair up and nails done. "That's my seat," she said, voice shaky with fake bravery. 

"Martha," Andrew started, Neil snorting quietly beside him. "I don't care." 

"I-it's my seat." 

"Pity. Truly." 

"But-" she started to protest again. 

"The guy with the blue baseball cap is out today," Neil interrupted, not looking up from what he was writing. Andrew narrowed his eyes at him. 

"Um," Marissa said, eloquently. 

Neil finally lifted his head, brows furrowed and nose scrunched in a way that was not at all cute. Fuck off. 

"So that means that blond girl with the two braids," he elaborated, pointing vaguely behind him with his pencil. "Has an open seat next to her that you can probably take." 

Disappointment colored Marissa's face. "Oh," she said. "So you don't mind that he's in my seat." 

"No?" Neil asked, a deep blush rising on his cheeks from attention, and Andrew realized just how intensely he'd been staring at him. "Should I?"

"No, I guess not. I thought we had fun last class, but I'll just-I'll just go." 

And she did, skittering away to the seat Neil had motioned to. 

"That was," Neil said, trailing off. 

"Terrible, uncomfortable," Andrew supplied, counting on his fingers. "Rough, an absolute fucking dumpster fire of a let down?" 

"Let down?"

Andrew stared at him, and the blush crawled higher. 

"What's a let down?" 

"A 'let down,'" Andrew said, holding his hands up for the quotation marks. "Is what you just did to Marissa."

Neil's head lilted to the side, red bangs falling into blue eyes. "Talked to her?"

"Idiot," Andrew hissed. "She was into you."

"Oh," Neil said. "I doubt that was it."

Andrew squashed the desire to throttle him. "Why ever not," he said without the inclination of a question.

Neil pointed to his face, as if that were a reasonable answer coming from a reasonable person that understood how attraction worked, with his stupid long eyelashes and blue eyes and freckles _and-_

"You are a fucking idiot." Andrew spat. 

~*~*

"I heard Neil shot down Marissa today," Matt said as he sat himself at the lunch table. 

Andrew stabbed at his carrots, violently, and scattered his neatly organized pile. He grit his teeth and set back to pulling the little orange cubes out of his peas. 

_"Marissa!"_ Nicky screeched. 

"I still don't really get what I did that was so bad," Neil said as he filched a fry off Jean's tray. "It's not like I insulted her." 

Jean snorted. "You always find a way to be insulting." 

"Now that's just rude." 

"It is true." 

Nicky waved his hands in their faces, launching a slimy blob of what seemed to mashed potatoes onto Aaron's shoulder. 

"Gross, Nicky," he complained and stood to grab a tissue. 

Nicky ignored him. "You turned down Marissa? Like super popular cheerleader Marissa that most of the guys at this school would beg to do the nasty with?" 

"I don't know," Neil said quickly. He shot Andrew a panicked look. "Are they the same Marissa?" 

Andrew shot him his own look back. He hoped it was dead and void of all feeling. 

"There's literally only one Marissa in this whole school," Andrew said. 

Neil nodded seriously, turned back to Nicky and said, "Then yes." 

Nicky twisted his hands in his hair. "Oh my _god_." 

"Are you sure you're not gay?" Allison snorted as she played with Renee's fingers. "Very few people that are into women would turn down Marissa." A coy smile played on her lips. "Almost as few as the ones that would turn down a chance with me." 

Andrew chewed angrily on his spork, and Aaron tried to swat it out of his mouth as he made his way back to his seat. 

"That's bad for your teeth," Aaron said. 

"You're bad for my will to live," Andrew shot back. 

Dan propped her head up on her hand, gaze sharp. 

"Hold up," she said. "Are we just going to ignore the fact that Neil asked Andrew if it was the right Marissa?" 

Matt hummed in agreement. "Oh yeah," he said. "Didn't this happen during Neil's fancy smart kid class?" 

"How do you all _know this?"_ Neil questioned, looking stunned and mildly afraid. 

"Wake up, honey," Allison said. "This is high school." 

"That's a bit dramatic babe." 

"Everything I do is the perfect amount of dramatic." 

"I still don't even understand what I did wrong," Neil pleaded. 

"You told her that you did not care that someone was in her seat," Jean said. "Which was next to you." 

"Ergo," Nicky made a complicated flourishing movement with his hand. "She wanted to spend time with you and you didn't want to spend time with her." 

"But I've known her a day and all we talked about was math, so why should I? It wasn't that interesting." 

Nicky slammed his hands down on the table. "But she did! Because of you!" 

"Why would she find me interesting?" 

"You're very not self aware, Neil," Matt said, a fond look on his face. 

Neil looked uncomfortable. "Thank you?" 

"Who was in Marissa's seat anyway?" Jean asked, poking a finger into Neil's cheek. 

Neil smacked his hand away and stole another fry. "Andrew was." 

Nicky gasped. 

_"Andrew was?"_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI IM SO SORRY ITS BEEN SO LONG ITS A SHIT EXCUSE BUT IVE BEEN PREPPING FOR COLLEGE AND ALSO WENT ON VACAY WITH MY FRIENDS AND DIDNT BRING MY LAPTOP WITH ME AND ALSO I STARTED WRITING THIS THE OTHER DAY AND IT GOT DELETED AND ALSO ???? MY EX TEXTED SAYING HE MISSED ME SO ITS BEEN AN ABSOLUTE WHIRLWIND I PROMISE IT WONT HAPPEN AGAIN
> 
> EDIT: I ALSO WANTED TO SAY THAT I PROMISE ITS GONNA ACTUALLY GET INTO THE SPIDERMAN STUFF SOON IM JUST INCAPABLE OF NOT DOING THE SLOWEST OF SLOWBURNS AND PINING LIKE IM GONNA SPEED IT UP I PROMISE


	5. you are dumb and i (love) hate it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Hey," Matt started, a worried expression bringing his eyebrows together. "Have you ever seen Neil eat lunch or bring food before? Or like? Actually use his backpack." 
> 
> Andrew raised an eyebrow at him. "He's been here a total of two days." 
> 
> "But have you?" 
> 
> And that gave Andrew a moment of mental pause, because, no. He hadn't. 

Neil was whispering to Matt on their way out of the cafeteria, an embarrassed scrunch taking up his face, and Andrew watched as Matt nodded eagerly along to whatever the idiot was saying. 

"Yeah, buddy. Of course," Matt said, shoving his leftover half of a peanut butter sandwich at Neil until he took it. "I can get you something from the vending machines too, if you want."

Neil shook his head quickly. "Thank you, but no. No, I'm good with this," Neil said. "You're sure you don't want it?" 

Matt reached out a hand to ruffle Neil's hair, smiling a little sadly. "Nah, man. I probably would have just thrown it away." 

"Okay," A muscle twitched in Neil's jaw. "Thank you, really." 

Neil turned, then, and darted out of the cafeteria, disappearing almost immediately into the throng of students despite his bright hair. 

Andrew shouldered his way to stand near Matt before Kevin tried to suck him into another conversation about the importance of weight training. Before he could figure out the most effective way to ask Matt about the ordeal with Neil without sounding overly invested, Matt started rambling to him. 

"Hey," Matt started, a worried expression bringing his eyebrows together. "Have you ever seen Neil eat lunch or bring food before? Or like? Actually use his backpack." 

Andrew raised an eyebrow at him. "He's been here a total of two days." 

"But have you?" 

And that gave Andrew a moment of mental pause, because, no.

He hadn't. 

All Neil ever seemed to have was his singular, worn down notebook that looked like it had half the pages torn out and whatever pen or pencil he'd managed to snag from the teacher's desk in his backpack. Andrew had only taken a quick look, when Neil had been stuffing the notebook in his bag at the end of his stupid smart math class, but it seemed to be all he had besides yesterday's sweater crumbled at the bottom. 

"No," Andrew grit out. 

But it wasn’t important, because plenty of students went to school severely unprepared for the day. Sure, most of them had their own pencils and owned more than one notebook, or had a laptop and at least a few textbooks. 

And a phone.

"Yeah," Matt continued, as if Andrew wasn't having a crisis over the overly-interesting asshole that the group had decided to adopt. "I haven't either." 

And Neil had only ever eaten an apple and a few french fries during their lunch break while everyone else either sat down with food packed from home or waited in line for the shitty cafeteria food, and both of those things had been stolen off of other people's plates. If he'd had anything else or more, Andrew would have remembered. 

But Andrew just shrugged as if he didn't just witness Neil practically beg food off Matt two minutes ago, and stomped his way to make sure Aaron didn’t kill Nicky for accidentally setting something on fire during their free. 

He had bigger issues than the enigma that was Neil Josten. 

~*~*

Neil and Jean were already at the track by the time Andrew had made his way down, beating the entirety of the rest of the group. Jean was, apparently, taking advantage of the privacy to scold Neil with the ferocity of an exhausted mother. 

Andrew crouched behind the stands and leaned forward to listen. 

"You should not be alone like that," Jean hissed, fingers knotted in his dark hair and a stressed press to his lips. 

Neil shrugged from where he was balanced on the divider that separated the crowd from the track and field, arms just barely extended from his sides and a look of careful consideration on his face, the dying sun setting his red hair aflame. 

"What else is there to do?" 

"I-" Jean stammered, his accent strengthening in his desperate grasp for words. "I can ask my host family. They are good people." 

Neil shot him a glare. "And tell them what?" He asked. "'This random new kid is sleeping under the locker room benches, can he have a room?' Yeah, that'll go over well." 

"But you are not a random kid. You are my friend." 

"Okay, fine," Neil said and threw up his hands. It was the biggest reaction that Andrew had ever seen from him, and he found himself leaning in at the fire in his voice. "That your weird childhood friend from France is randomly here. Yeah, the same one that disappeared under mysterious circumstances and is clearly not French. At all." 

Jean scoffed and pulled his hands from his head. "So you just expect me to leave you like that." 

"Yes," Neil said, rolling his eyes, and performed an unnaturally graceful back walkover with a casual nonchalance that definitely should not have accompanied the movement. Andrew twisted his fingers into the edge of his armband, gritting his teeth, as Neil straightened up again. 

"Besides," Neil said, hopping down from his perch. "It wouldn't be safe for them or you to be so close to me." He shrugged again, as if the phrase were normal. 

"You know what I am." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im realizing now that non of yall know my name so like ?? you can call me chess lol its the nickname i wish i had but didn't because i didnt even realize the second part of my first name was a part of my name (my cultural naming system is weird and i didn't know my whole first name until like first grade so ) but yeah ! you can call me chess if you want or like not or whatever youd like ?? 
> 
> anyways i doubt any of you care about the ex drama but he now lives like nine hundred miles away because of college but we talk a lot now so i think ive screwed my emotional health for the next year i love that for myself


	6. this is terrible and so are you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jean opened his mouth to speak just as the buzz grew worse, the dial turned up several steps. Neil's hand shot out without him realizing it, covering half of Jean's face and effectively smothering whatever he was going to say. 
> 
> "Neil Josten," somebody said, voice drawling and mocking. "I've heard so much about you." 
> 
> Neil spun to give him his father's smile. "Riko," he drawled back. "I heard you're a little bitch." 

Neil hopped off his perch on the fence just as a high, irritating buzz started between his ears. 

"Somebody's coming," he said, scanning the path that lead to the locker rooms, eyes catching on a tiny flicker of movement behind the bleachers. 

"Bad?" Jean questioned, eyes wide and body stiffening. 

Neil shrugged and tilted his head, assessing the hum in his brain. "More so than the normal person," he paused. "But nowhere near my father. They're nothing I can't handle. Any ideas?" 

Jean shifted uncomfortably. "Riko Moriyama, probably." 

"Elaborate," Neil said, motioning with one hand and trying not to betray the panic that was quickly rising in his throat at the name. 

"He is rich and sadistic," Jean said lowly. "His family is powerful, but I am not certain how powerful." 

Neil scoffed and kicked at a rock, hoping to disguise his fear with annoyance. "Here I was, thinking that I chose a little, unassuming town to lay low." 

"I mean-" 

"I know what you meant, Jean," Neil said, not unkindly. "But trust me. If it's this Riko kid that you're talking about, then it's deeper than that." 

And that was absolute bullshit, wasn't it? The first town, first identity that he'd chosen without his mother was already at risk, even if the risk of Riko recognizing him itself wasn't huge. It was still enough for his father to find him, to track him down, and finish what he'd started so many years ago. 

Neil Josten was fucked. 

Jean opened his mouth to speak just as the buzz grew worse, the dial turned up several steps. Neil's hand shot out without him realizing it, covering half of Jean's face and effectively smothering whatever hewas going to say. 

"Neil Josten," somebody said, voice drawling and mocking. "I've heard so much about you." 

Neil spun to give him his father's smile. "Riko," he drawled back. "I heard you're a little bitch." 

" _Neil_ ," Jean hissed. "I do no-"

"That may be the most intelligent thing I've ever heard you say," Andrew's voice interrupted from behind. "Congratulations." 

Neil twisted his neck to throw him a smirk, far realer than the grin he'd flashed Riko.

"You know," Neil said, only mildly miffed that he hadn't sensed his approach. "I always aim to please, Andrew." 

Andrew didn't respond to that remark, but Neil saw a flicker of movement as his jaw clenched—despite the bored look in his eyes. He felt a spark of triumph at eliciting that reaction somewhere in his chest, a smug feeling settling in his fingertips. 

"You're an insolent little brat, aren't you?" Riko inquired, drawing Neil's attention back towards him. "And an ignorant one, too. Don't you know who you're speaking to?" 

"It's true, he is a brat," Andrew said. 

"A little-bitty bitch," Neil deadpanned at the same time. 

" _Neil_ ," Jean hissed again. 

"It's shocking Kevin hasn't muzzled you yet," Riko snarled. 

Neil made a gesture, dismissive and airy. "Stronger people have tried and failed to shut me up. Clearly it didn't work." 

"Listen well," Riko spat, stepping forward, and Neil dragged his gaze from head to toe and back again before giving him a judgmental look, enjoying the way the resulting anger colored Riko's face. "You may be fast, and you may have caught Kevin's eye, but you are no better than an untrained dog. Sooner or later he will grow bored of you, and you will be mine to break." 

Neil scoffed and closed the gap between them, leaning forward on his toes close enough to spit in Riko's face.

"I'm so, so sorry that your, frankly terrible, mix of superiority and inferiority complexes made you threaten the fifteen-year-old transfer kid, but your daddy issues and lack of love and affection just aren't my problem." Neil cocked his head to the side, pretending to think. "You know, it isn't really Kevin's either. Despite the strange and honestly obsessive attachment you have to him, he just doesn't seem to share the sentiment. He found real, functioning human beings to hang around. He's still assimilating to normal human life, sure, but at least people like him. Can you even say the same about your own family?" 

"Watch your next words very carefully," Riko growled. 

"Muzzle me, collar me, break me," Neil spat. "I'd like to see you fucking try." 

And Neil felt it, the buzz rattling his skull. Riko was going to hit him, and Neil had half his mind made up to let him just for the hell of it. He'd already made a series of terrible decisions, what's one more?

Riko was rearing his fist back, and Neil was standing there grinning his father's grin, and a moment later neither of them were. 

"Careful, Riko," Andrew said, standing between a shell shocked Neil and an equally stunned Riko, the latter quickly picking himself off the ground.

"You know I don't like it when other people touch my things." 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HI im sorry again for such a late update i moved into my dorm and i already have such an excess of homework and quizzes so i cant really promise a steady schedule for the future but i will be doing my best
> 
> also this is kind of terrible i am very sorry


End file.
